Profiles
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: The Jump Street Chapel tries to catch a serial killer who is targeting high school kids, and wind up getting help from an unlikely source; but as the investigation continues, they realize that everything they thought they knew about murderers could be wrong.
1. Chapter 1

Profiles

Author's Note: The typical stuff, first time doing a story for this category, so bear with me.

"I'm getting tired of this," Penhall murmured under his breath, "Three nights now we've been walking these same beats in 30 degree weather trying to catch a schmuck who gets his kicks picking off high school kids like flies, and all we're getting out of it is a set of frozen lungs…" he grumbled as he looked down at his shoes, "And numb toes."

Tom didn't seem to be paying much attention, he looked up to the corner where the streetlight was and asked, "Why do you think they do it, Penhall?"

"Why do people roam the streets at night in freezing weather?" Doug asked, "Beats the hell out of me."

"No," Tom said, "What do you think makes somebody like this kill? I mean how do you _just_ decide that you want to murder a bunch of teenagers?"

That's all that the city had been talking about for the last few days and the whole place was just about in an uproar about it. Understandably of course, over the last couple of weeks there had been five high school kids found murdered in the streets, and not by any ordinary means. No, shooting them would've been too easy, whoever the killer was seemed to prefer choking or strangling them, there was usually a small struggle, always in vain though. It was hard to find a way to tie the kids together since they went to different schools and hung out with different crowds, nothing seemed to connect them, except that they were all killed somewhere between 10 P.M. and 3 A.M. and all of them killed and left on secondary streets where there wasn't much traffic, and always in a place right where they couldn't be seen by the street lamps that were standing on every block. Apparently whoever the guy was _knew_ what he was doing, and it had left Hanson wondering if he'd done this kind of thing before.

"I don't know, maybe the guy's just nuts," Penhall suggested.

Tom looked back at his partner and asked, "You think it's as simple as that?"

"What, you got a better theory?" Penhall asked, he turned, shivered, resumed pacing and said, "Maybe we ought to check in with Hoffs and Ioki."

"I already did, they're not having any better luck than we are," Hanson told him.

"I feel like those dumb Scotland Yard guys trying to catch Jack the Ripper," Penhall said, "And we'll probably have as much luck too."

Tom scratched his head and said, "Hey Doug."

"_What_?" the annoyance in his tone was most evident.

"Who do you think Jack the Ripper was?" Tom asked.

Doug turned around and looked at him like he was crazy and asked as much, "Are you nuts? I need to stop talking to you, it's not good for me."

"Alright, I'll try another question," Tom said.

"Oh please don't," Doug replied sarcastically, "I've had about all the enlightening conversation from you that I can stand for one night."

"I was just thinking," Tom started to say.

"Congratulations," Penhall responded.

"As I was saying," Tom said as he slapped Penhall's jacket sleeve to get his attention, "How many women did Jack the Ripper kill, about 7?"

"How the hell should I know?" Penhall asked.

"Well, let's say it was 7, why that number? Why stop? Why kill that many in the first place?"

"I got a better why," Doug said, "_Why_ did I get stuck with _you_ as a partner for this assignment?"

Tom waved him off, just then they heard someone screaming from around the corner and they took off running. Just out of the glare of the bright streetlamp they could see two people struggling.

"Police, freeze!"

As soon as those words were out of Penhall's mouth, one person shoved the other down and took off running. Hanson took a flashlight out of his pocket and turned it on to see a young woman had been knocked to the ground and he knelt down to assist her, while Doug continued in his pursuit of the other person fleeing the crime scene. And all seemed to be going well, he almost had the guy in his grip, and _then_ he hit the wall.

Of course hitting the wall is merely an expression, _most_ of the time, and it was an expression here as well, all the same Penhall ran into _something_ and it knocked him down and he lost the assailant. As he fell down he realized that the _thing_ he'd run into was actually a person, and though he should've known better and in fact _did_ know better, that it wasn't this person's fault and was just one of those things, wrong place wrong time, he couldn't help taking his frustration out on the person who decided to place the part of speed bump at the most unfortunate of times, when he was in pursuit of a killer.

"You idiot!" he said as he hit the guy with his fist once, "You just let a ki—" he didn't get to finish his thought because the other person hit him back and did it hard enough that his neck let out a loud POP as his face was turned to the side for him.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Hanson asked the young woman who had been attacked as he helped her to her feet.

"Yes, I think so," she answered shakily.

They heard the commotion coming from up ahead and Hanson grabbed the woman by her hand and pulled her along with him; they might've lost the killer but he wasn't going to lose a witness while he found out what happened with Penhall. They caught up with him a couple blocks ahead and Hanson felt ready to crawl under a rock as he had to be the bearer of bad news. He went over to the two people who were beating each other up, though by now Penhall seemed to be doing most of that work in pounding the other guy into oblivion, and Hanson came up to him screaming excitedly, "Penhall-Penhall-PENHALL!"

"WHAT?" Penhall demanded to know as he momentarily turned away from the guy he was pounding.

Hanson felt sick but also a bit amused as he told his partner, "You're beating up on a girl!"

"What?!" Penhall turned back to the guy he'd been clobbering and with the illumination of Hanson's flashlight, saw that under the camouflage army jacket and the red doo rag, it _was_ a girl, a teenaged girl, who by now was a bloody mess and looked mad as hell.

"I don't believe this!" Penhall said.

The girl jumped him and started pounding him with her fists, screaming at him, "You don't believe it, huh? How about this? You believe this?"

Hanson came up to them and pulled her off of Penhall and told her, "That's enough, you're assaulting an officer."

"Officer of what?" the girl asked smugly.

Tom turned back to his partner in disbelief and all but screamed at him, "Well show her, Doug!"

Penhall reached into his pocket and took out his badge and showed it to the girl. "There, happy?" he asked.

Likewise, Tom took his badge out and showed it to her too.

"You're cops?" the girl asked.

"That's right," Tom pocketed his badge and took a step towards her, "Are you seriously hurt?"

The girl pressed her hand under her nose to see how much blood was pouring out of it and she said, "I don't think so."

"Alright," he said, and turning back to the woman he added, "If you two ladies will follow us to our station, we can get everything cleared up right away."

"I don't _want_ to get anything cleared up," the girl said firmly as she reluctantly followed them, "I want to kick the crap out of the _moron_ who did this to me."

"Yeah well get in line," Penhall murmured, "I have a feeling the Captain's going to beat you to that."

Tom leaned over and said, "Looks like she got a few good swings in at you too."

"Yeah," Penhall grumbled, "I don't know what's worse, that I beat up a girl, or that everybody's going to know that a _girl_ beat _me_ up."


	2. Chapter 2

"Yuck," Judy said as she gathered up the bloody Kleenexes the girl left on the desk as she used a new one to staunch her nosebleed, "It looks bad but I think you're going to live."

The girl responded, in a low nasal voice since she pinched the bridge of her nose, "As many nosebleeds as I've had in my life, I could've told you that."

Ioki held up a wastebasket for Judy to toss the Kleenexes in and he said, "I still can't believe that Penhall did that."

"Your lack of imagination disappoints me," the girl replied, "Of course I was always told that cops don't have imaginations."

Judy rolled her eyes as she saw Tom and Doug coming up to them.

"Alright, Miss," Tom said, professional as ever, "We're ready if you'd like to make a statement."

The girl lowered the Kleenex and said, "Yeah, I got a statement for you," she got on her toes to get in Penhall's face and poked him in the stomach and told him, "Go hug a cactus, Porky."

Penhall laughed dryly under his breath and told her, "I'm going to let that go under the circumstances, but don't push your luck, kid."

"What's going on around here?" Jenko asked as he came up to the others who were huddled closely together, "What's up, a football game?" The others turned towards their captain and Jenko saw the girl standing by Hoffs' desk whose face was still covered in blood and he took a step back, "Oh geez, what happened?"

Judy, Ioki and the girl all pointed to Penhall, who only held his hands up in a mock surrender gesture in response.

"Penhall," Jenko said in a mocking 'Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do' tone, "Somehow I get the feeling that you know something about this."

"In my defense, I have no defense," Doug said, "I lost my temper and I hit her when she got in my way of pursuing a suspect, in my defense though, I thought she was a guy, I mean if I'd _known_ she was a chick I wouldn't have…well you know."

"I see," Jenko turned back to the girl and asked her, "Have you been seriously injured, little lady?"

"No, sir," she answered.

"And what is your name, Miss?" he asked.

"Terry Livingston," she said.

"And how old are you?"

"I'm 16," she answered bluntly.

"Nah, you couldn't get that fresh in 16 years," Ioki joked.

Terry turned to him, and then back to Jenko and asked him, "Where'd you get this pup from? I mean what's he in for?"

"What?" Ioki asked, "I'm a cop."

"Yeah right," Terry sneered.

"Hey, how old do I look to you?" Ioki asked.

She looked him up and down once and answered, "Fifteen if you're a day."

"Fifteen?"

"Okay, twelve," Terry responded.

"Well, Miss Livingston," Jenko said, "I'm sure by now you've been introduced to most of the officers working here and must have an idea of what we're doing."

"I suppose so," she answered, "You send cops in undercover to high schools posing as the kids to bust the other kids?"

"Yes," Jenko confirmed.

"Alright," she pointed to Judy, Tom and Ioki and said, "These three I get," she pointed to Penhall and said, "But I don't get him. He looks a little too _fat_ to strike me as convincing."

Penhall thought he could feel his bottom jaw drop, "_Fat_?"

"No offense, but the only way you could pass for high school would be if you were held back a couple years," Terry told him.

Penhall's face assumed a forced grin like a psychopath about to kill and he turned around and cracked his knuckles and said under his breath, "If there wasn't a law against it I'd knock her cold."

"Miss Livingston, on behalf of my squad, I apologize for this ugly incident," Jenko said.

"Yeah well, I guess I can understand it," Terry said, wincing as she moved the muscles in her cheek the wrong way, "Under the circumstances, trying to catch the guy who's been killing all those people."

Hanson spoke up and told Jenko, "I got the statement from a woman who was attacked tonight, it seems that it could be our guy but the potential victim is 19 years old."

"Okay," Jenko said, "We'll process this in a minute," he turned back to Terry and asked her, "Can we call your parents to come and pick you up?"

Terry shook her head grimly and told him, "Won't do any good, they're not home."

"Where are they?" Tom asked.

"Out of town," Terry said, and explained, "They went on a vacation a few days ago before the news broke that we've got a serial killer around here. And wherever they went, they did _not_ see reason to leave me with a phone number to reach them at."

"They left you all alone for the week?" Hoffs asked in a bit of disbelief.

"I'm old enough," Terry answered, "There's no law against it."

"Alright, we're not getting anywhere fast," Jenko said, and addressing Terry he asked, "Is there anybody at your house _now_ that we can contact?"

Terry shook her head again. "Sorry."

"Alright, I have another question, if you _knew_ that there's a serial killer going after teenagers out alone at night, what were _you_ doing out there tonight?" Penhall asked.

"I _was_ on a date but he got fresh, I punched him in the face and he threw me out of the car and let me work my way back home," Terry said, "It seems that whoever this killer is, he doesn't go after people who travel in pairs or groups."

"Well so far as we can tell there _is_ something to that theory," Tom replied.

Now that the adrenaline had started to die down, it was obvious to the officers that Terry wasn't just a common punk, and it was obvious from watching her that she was not looking forward to going home to an empty house for the night.

"Look," she said to Jenko, sounding a bit desperate, "If it's all the same to you, can't I just stay here tonight? I won't get in anybody's way but it's obvious this is the _one_ place where the killer is _not_ going to come looking for a victim."

Judy leaned over to Tom and murmured, "She has a point."

"Maybe, may-be," Jenko replied, "But this is not a halfway house we're running here." He looked at Terry and said, "If you'll go with Officer Hoffs, she'll escort you into the ladies room to get cleaned up and then I will personally give you a police escort home and make sure nobody's there playing hide and seek."

Terry nodded glumly and followed Judy out of the squad room.

"So what exactly happened out there, Hanson?" Jenko asked.

"Well," Tom cleared his throat and said, "It's pretty much straightforward of what Doug said. We heard a woman scream, saw she was being attacked, ran to catch the guy, he took off, Doug chased him, and then she just turned the corner and he ran into her and they both hit the ground."

Jenko looked at the bruise forming on Penhall's cheek and his split lip and he asked Tom, "Did the ground hit him back?"

"She did that," Tom answered, "She didn't know he was a cop."

"That's the point of our work here," Jenko reminded them.

"Captain," Tom said, "About the other woman."

"Keep her on ice, I'll go over the report when I get back," Jenko told him, "Right now I want to get this kid back to her home and make sure there's nobody there waiting for her who shouldn't be."

"Right," Hanson agreed reluctantly.

After Jenko left the squad room and it was just Tom, Doug and Ioki remaining, Doug scratched his head and said, "You know, I just thought of something."

"What's that?" the others asked.

Penhall pointed in the direction of the restroom and asked, "What guy in his right mind would go out with that chick?" Another question occurred to him and he turned to Hanson and added, "And _why_ does Jenko think she needs anybody's help? Seems to me she can take care of herself just _fine_."

* * *

Jenko looked at the row of houses on the street up ahead and saw half had lights on and the other half were pitch dark. He also looked over at the young girl in the passenger seat who had kicked her feet up on the dashboard during the ride back to her house.

"Which house is it?" he asked.

Terry pointed to a house in the middle of the street.

"The lights are on," Jenko observed, "Are they supposed to be?"

"I leave them on when I go to school in the morning," Terry answered, "When the sun's out nobody notices until it gets dark, some of them are set up on timers incase I'm not here, like the front porch light."

"I see," Jenko said as he pulled up to the curb, "Well, here we are."

"Are you coming in?" Terry asked hesitantly.

"I'll do a little checking around, make sure nobody's hiding under the bed or in the bathtub or anything like that," he explained, "And if anything seems out of place to you, let me know."

"Alright," she said as they got out of the car.

They went up the sidewalk, up the stairs to the front porch and Jenko went in first and looked around the place. One thing he'd observed outside was that unlike a lot of houses, these people did not advertise who they were; their name wasn't on the mailbox and they didn't have one of those big stone markers with their surname standing out in the yard. In his opinion that was a very smart move, even if he wasn't a cop he'd _never_ tell anybody where he lived, and he wouldn't make it obvious for any idiot driving by to find out either.

Taking the house one room at a time, Jenko checked every place conceivable for somebody to hide, even a few inconceivable places: behind all the doors, behind the couch, in the shower, under the sink, in the laundry basket, even in a few dresser drawers. They were in the kitchen and he came to a door that was locked and asked Terry, "What's in here?"

"That's the basement," she answered.

"Is there a storm door leading into it from the outside?" he asked.

"No, a couple windows but I doubt anybody could squeeze through them," Terry told him.

Jenko lifted the latch and said, "All the same I'm going to check, stay here."

"This is my house," she reminded him, "Where am I going to go?"

She stayed at the top of the stairs and waited for Jenko to come back, and after a couple minutes he did, and with nothing to report.

"Listen, Officer," Terry said as he summed up his investigation, "I know that you cops can't _really_ tell the public about if you have any news pertaining to the case at hand, but for my own peace of mind do you have any idea who this guy is or why he's killing people my age?"

"Well, Miss Livingston, murder is a very tricky thing to explain," Jenko told her, "You have different types of murderers who do it for very different reasons, some don't even have a reason, they just do it. We're bringing in some professionals in criminal psychiatry to see if they can get a profile on this guy so we'll be able to narrow it down to something specific."

"I hope you catch him soon," Terry said.

"So do I," he said, "Now, I've checked all your windows, they seem locked up nice and tight, the back door's still locked, and you lock the front door behind me when I've gone and you should be alright. However if by any chance somebody _would_ manage to break in here," he reached into his jacket and took out a card, "Here's the number to the 21 Jump Street Chapel, you just call us and we'll get here as fast as we can. Not that I don't have the fullest of confidences in our brothers in blue, _but_ all the same, call us first."

Terry took the card from him and said, "You're better than me, I don't have _any_ confidence in the regular cops. If they know their head from a hole in the ground then they're having a good day."

"Well I'm sure you can appreciate it gets frowned upon if fellow officers say something like that," Jenko told her, "_Even_ if I happen to agree with it. Oh by the way, when do you expect your parents home?"

"Sometime next week," Terry answered, "They never had a first honeymoon when they got married so they decided to have it now, almost 20 years after the fact. Better late than never I suppose."

"Yes, I suppose, well, goodnight Miss Livingston, and once again I apologize for what Officer Penhall did."

"Well, he may not be interested in my apology, but tell him I'm sorry for what I did to him in return," Terry said with a small smirk.

"I'll make sure he gets the message," Jenko told her.

Jenko showed himself out and once he was down the sidewalk, Terry bolted the door and drew the chain on it. She watched as his car drove away and she debated with herself whether it would be a better idea to turn the outside light off…or leave it on? Which would be more likely to get the wrong person's attention drawn to the house? Finally she decided to shut off the outside light, but to keep the downstairs lights on, and she inched her way backwards up the stairs to the second floor to get to her room to stay for the night. She placed the card Jenko had given her by the phone on her nightstand.

* * *

"Well we got Hanson's victim put in a cab and sent back to her home for the night," Judy told Jenko later in the night, "What do you think? Is it a copycat or is it just bad luck that he went after someone who doesn't fit the profile of the other victims?"

"Well the only difference is she's out of high school," Tom noted, "Otherwise there's not much difference, technically she still counts as a teenager, so he may have thought she was perfect for the attack."

"The question is why?" Judy wanted to know, "What makes this guy think to go after the victims he does?"

Jenko looked at the clock and announced, "We'll go over those questions tomorrow. Maybe by then some of these criminal specialists will have arrived and we can ask them some of these questions."

"What do you mean, Captain?" Penhall asked.

"I mean it's after 3 o' clock in the morning," Jenko pointed out, "The threat's over for another night, for one more day the city is safe from this creep. Everybody go home and get some sleep."

"Yeah right," Judy tiredly murmured as she put on her jacket, "I doubt I'll be getting any sleep tonight."

Hanson looked at his watch and said, "Yeah, if we're going to keep our covers going, we've got to get to school in a few hours."

"I just hope Penhall's body check can keep a secret," Judy said, "If she blows our cover now…"

"I doubt she'll do that," Ioki said as he put on his jacket, "She strikes me as the kind who can keep her mouth shut."

"For all of our own good, I sure hope so," Hanson replied.


End file.
